Time Will Tell
by Dinahmite64
Summary: Kamishirasawa Keine is living with guilt-guilt caused by herself and what her Were-half had done. How can she make amends for it?
1. Unbearable Guilt and Matching Shame

One day, Keine sat on her front porch. She awaited the arrival of students she knew wouldn't show up for school today. She assumed this, because of an issue she was going through lately-she had increasing difficulty controlling her other half. The were-hakutaku had gotten the better of her last night, killing not only Youkai, but a couple of humans, as well.

She sat on the porch, pondering concealing the history of these events, but she remembered that she would never forget, as others would. She figured that perhaps this way, everything would return to normal. The students would stop and go, "I'm late for school!" and would come flocking to her building. But then she realized that she would never be able to face them.

Well, honestly, she didn't have much of a class to begin with, as humans were more preoccupied with survival rather than school and history. Their society was, after all, ruled by hands-on work rather than the technology the real world is accustomed to. People toiled in the fields for food. Being a half-youkai, Keine didn't exactly starve. She could go months without eating.

Her concern was exactly that; eating. Eating the humans. She had begun to become more youkai than human. This was an issue. The guilt inside her burned and boiled like a thousand suns. Not a minute has gone by without torment.

She repeatedly cursed the Hakutaku that had bitten her in the first place, and her friend Mokou, who refused to kill her on demand and worry.

She had warned the foolish immortal that she felt the insanity becoming her. She had warned her to slay her in case she should hurt anybody. Mokou was too soft-hearted and caring to possibly carry out this task, and therefore, allowed Keine to run rampant, despite repeated pleas from her blue-heaired friend.

Keine clenched her first so hard that the nails dug into her palm, causing it to bleed. She was relentless. She had felt that she had deserved it. In fact, she deserved to die.

She got up off her chair and went inside the building. There was no way any students would show up. If they did, they would get a severe headbutt for being an hour late. Well, any of them except Watanabe, because after all, she _had_ killed her mother last night.

Keine thought to herself while sitting at her desk in the desolate classroom. _Perhaps I could feign possession._ She pondered. _Yes, that would work. I could start putting up warning posters around the village of a Youkai that could take possession of people's minds... like Satori!_ Then she stopped pondering and began writing it down on a piece of paper with ink. Then onto another paper, and another.

Soon, she was in town, posting these papers all over the village. She faced away from all people, as she was ashamed of herself and could not face them directly. People were unsure of being around Keine, and kept their distance while keeping an eye on her, while others simply grabbed their children and hid them inside their houses. To them, it was a huge disappointment and breach of trust. If they couldn't trust Keine, who _could_ they trust? People looked at the blue-haired history teacher with scorn and fear.

Keine had finally finished hanging up the posters and patted her hands together. "There! That should clear any doubt." She walked back to her school, ashamed, and the villagers came out to read the posters. They just muttered a low "Ohhhh..."

Keine hoped that her cover-up could convince them. In the meantime, she needed to learn how to control Were-Keine once again.


	2. Begging the Question

Mokou decided she would visit her troubled friend. She saw Keine with her head in her arms on the top of her desk. This prompted her to run in and see what was going on.

"Don't cry, Keine!" Mokou called out, pushing the sliding door open and rushing into the desolate classroom.

"I'm not crying..." Keine replied. "I just have a killer headache."

"Do you want me to go to Yagoukoro and get you some Advil?" Mokou asked, putting a hand on Keine's shoulder.

"I have some pills." Keine said, raising a hand slightly. "There is no need."

"This always happens," Mokou replied. "the day after a full moon, you get a severe headache."

"It's not from 'caving' people." Keine replied, a tone of sarcasm.

Mokou chuckled. "Oh, yeah! I forgot about those rumours!"

As Mokou laughed, Keine looked stern.

"Uh... sorry." Mokou contained herself at Keine's upset.

"It's okay for you to joke..." Keine said calmly. "after all, you're not the one who loses control of herself at the full moon."

"You never used to do that!" Mokou exclaimed. "What the hell happened?"

"You think I know any better than you do?!" Keine asked, frustrated.

"Well, you know that Satori did it." Mokou announced.

"No, actually." Keine stated. "That was a decoy. To-to give myself some time to come up with a solution to this problem without being stabbed to death by pitchforks and burned with torches."

"That sounds very European." Mokou replied.

"Meh." Keine shrugged. "I've seen it happen here in the East too."

"Where do you think they got the 'Angry Mob' idea from?" Mokou asked rhetorically.

"...Why are we even talking about this...?" Keine was confused.

"Because you said-"

"Never mind! Mokou, what do you have in mind?"

"Ramen. Teriyaki. Suki-"

"BE SERIOUS FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!" Keine slammed her fist down on her desk angrily. "STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH ME!"

Mokou flinched. "Keine! This isn't like you!"

"I-I know..." Keine took a breather. "I'm so sorry."

Mokou took a sigh of relief. "I thought you were gonna chew my head off just now."

"Do you have to joke about Watanabe's mother like that?" Keine complained.

"Wait, you-"

"Yes. I chewed her head off." Keine said, shamefully. "Happy?"

"No..."

"It's all because you didn't kill me, you know." Keine pointed out.

"I can't, Keine!" Mokou snapped back. "I'm your best friend! I can't do that to you! I-it's bad enough you already have a short lifespan! I don't wanna cut it shorter!"

"Hakutaku are normally human-friendly..." Keine began. "But for some reason, I'm just getting angrier and angrier, and I'm losing control. I have a need to-to _destroy_..."

"Destroy?"

"Destroy."

Mokou, who was pacing back and forth, stopped dead in her tracks. "You feel like destroying things?"

"Destroying everything." Keine stated, a callous and murderous tone overcoming her usual calm, collected voice. "People. Youkai. Objects. It doesn't matter. Perhaps the Hakutaku is tired of everything? Tired of the millions of disasters it has to remember and keep track of... tired of the millions of people born and dying every day..."

"Keine..." Mokou reached out to her.

"Tired of people cheating time..." She whipped her head and looked at Mokou. "Tired of immortals! Tired of Youkai! Tired of the human race!"

Mokou began to feel uncomfortable. She knew deep down, that Keine's special ability to conceal history could change her life forever. She knew that Keine could negate her ever drinking the Hourai Elixir in the first place, or she could, in Hakutaku form, make a history where Mokou's Immortality gets negated by a new potion Eirin brews. Mokou would prefer to keep her distance at this point.

"Tired of Gensokyo..." Keine said, placing her hands on the sides of her face, worried.

Mokou walked close to her distressed friend and hugged her. "Keine, we'll work this out, I promise."

"Mokou, I'm scared." Keine spouted out. "What if-when the Were-hakutaku destroys everything..."

"...It destroys you as well?" Mokou finished Keine's suspicion. "And then itself?"

"Perhaps it wants everything to cease existence." Keine pondered. "I-it's just how I feel..."

"See?" Mokou stated. "You can still have independant thought, at least. You figured all that out by yourself!"

"Yes." Keine stood back up and walked towards her window and gazed out. "But for how long?"

"Tonight's a blue moon, lucky us." Mokou stood beside her. "That means Hakutaku again tonight."

"Not if I stay away from the moonlight." Keine replied.

"So, you'll spend the night in the basement?" Mokou asked.

"Yes."

"Bummer." Mokou said. "I really wish Kaguya could meet the 'new' Hakutaku."

"I will not recklessly endanger everyone for the sake of your entertainment." Keine stated, annoyed.

"Damn it." Mokou hung her head down. "Well, it was worth a try."

Mokou walked to the door. "Oh, and by the way. Koishi told me to tell you that you had better take down those posters you hung p all over town."

"I will." Keine said, raising a hand. "I promise."

"Okay, see ya!" Mokou waved.

Keine waved back and then bowed.


	3. Bring Out the Beast in Me

Keine sat below the school in the basement with the windows boarded up. To be even safer, she sat as far from the tiny strands of light peeking in as possible.

"No moonlight on me." Keine reinforced the thought. "Nope. I'm not going psycho tonight."

She sat in the pitch-black room, gazing at the little beams of light. She couldn't see her own hands. It was dark, damp, and stuffy; very uncomfortable and every breath of air was stale. The basement was also crammed with books, scrolls, desks, chairs, and shelves. So, it could be imagined that it was nearly impossible for Keine to move an inch without cutting her arm on a corner of a sharp desk, and she had the possibility of tripping on unseen objects.

She sat still and sighed. "Is it morning yet? No... it couldn't be. It just turned 10:00 an hour ago..." She pondered to herself. It's not like she could see the damned time anyway.

She tried to sleep sitting up, but it just wasn't working. Besides, every time her head leaned back, it bumped against the shelf behind her, and leaning over would leave her a nice long scratch across her face in the morning.

She scooched upright in her chair and felt a sharp pain go all the way up her spine. She howled and jumped out of her chair, and got stuck in the ceiling.

How?

Her horns got stuck.

Her horns.

Her bushy tail was in searing pain. She held onto it for comfort, when she suddenly realized.

"W-wh-?" she then gazed upwards to see a tiny stream of light where she was sitting before. A tiny stream of moonlight. Pencil-thin.

"That's all it took?!" she whined angrily.

She then decided 'screw it' and went upstairs and outside. She stood on her front porch and gazed at the moon hanging in the sky, mocking her and her cursed being.

She needed fresh air, anyway. Besides, going out for a walk is much better than being stuck in one place for hours on end. She walked through the quiet midnight-swooned village, and noticed a shadowy figure with horns grabbing a figure which looked human. Instinctively, she ran towards this hideous beast and crammed her horns through its stomach, causing blood to spray out like water. The little girl who was being attacked by it ran away screaming out "Youkai! Youkai!"

"I'm not a youkai!" Keine cried out. "Come back!" she extended a hand towards the direction the child was running, but to no avail.

That was when two other horned beasts came rushing out of nowhere, one ripping Keine's sleeve right off her shoulder while attempting to bite her, and the other grabbed her arm and bit it.

She recoiled, grabbing the one biting her arm and hurled it towards its friend. She clamped her right hand over the wound in pain. Blood ran down her arm and dripped onto the floor.

More horned beasts came, as they heard the noise. Pretty soon, the village had become infested with these evil youkai, and they were all attempting to attack Keine. Some grabbed onto her and bit parts of her while other attempted to stab her.

It was a massive blood sport.

Youkai were being hurled all over the place from one direction; where Keine was. She fought valiantly against the evil Youkai, and some landed against the villagers' houses. Suddenly, after Keine had torn one in half, spilling its intestines all over the ground, two grabbed her and pulled her back.

Their strength was no match for the Were-Hakutaku's and Keine thrusted her arms forward, tossing them into another building, breaking their skulls open.

Suddenly, Keine heard a familiar voice calling her frantically.

It was Mokou.

"Keine! What are you doing?!" Mokou screamed.

Keine stopped in confusion. "I'm exterminating youkai!"

"Those are the villagers!" Mokou cried.

Keine's heart stopped for a split second She looked towards the youkai that were clinging onto her, and she saw that they had no horns, no gray complexion; nothing. They were human beings.

She wrenched free and looked at the bloody chaos. She noticed that her first victim, who suffered horns in the stomach was a little boy with a bag in his hand.

Her stomach turned over. She felt as if she was going to vomit, but she contained it. She looked towards all the dead Youkai, finding that they suddenly appeared very human-like.

She turned to the mournful and terrified living humans, and she had no idea what to say. She paused and released a breath of pain and heartfelt sorrow.

"Satori, right?" a villager asked, hoping it was the case.

Keine did not respond.

The women of the village stared at the fresh corpses and covered their mouths with both hands. Some looked away and cried. A woman and the little girl and a man were mourning over the dead little boy.

Keine looked at Mokou for reconciliation, but Mokou looked away from her with shame.

Keine gazed at the villagers, who looked at her with fear and disappointment.

"It... _was_ Satori, right?" the same villager asked again, but with aggressiveness hinted in his voice beneath the sorrowful exterior.

"It's something else..." Keine began. "Something _much_ worse."


End file.
